View full sizeRonald Bartiromo, left, and Raymond D'Auria, the owners of R3 Electrical Inc. on Port Richmond Avenue, allegedly paid workers between $15 and $25 an hour without other benefits, while claiming to have paid them more than $80 per hour in wages and benefits on government-funded projects, according to the office of New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman.NYS Attorney General's office

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The owners of a Port Richmond electrical contracting firm zapped their employees by failing to pay them more than $200,000 in wages on government-related projects, alleges the state attorney general.

Ronald Bartiromo and Raymond D'Auria, the owners of R3 Electrical Inc. on Port Richmond Avenue, were arrested Tuesday and hauled into Manhattan Criminal Court, said a spokeswoman for Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman.

The duo, along with their company, are accused of multiple counts of grand larceny, falsifying business records and other charges, said Schneiderman's spokeswoman. The 48-year-old defendants were arraigned and released on their own recognizance, the spokeswoman said.

The defendants and their firm were hired as an electrical subcontractor on a 2008-2009 project to upgrade science labs at five City University of New York campuses, according to Schneiderman. They were also contracted in 2009 to upgrade boilers at the Rutgers Houses, a New York City Housing Authority development on Manhattan's Lower East Side. The state Power Authority funded the boiler renovations.

Under state law and the contract terms, the defendants were required to pay prevailing wages to their employees. The state's prevailing wage laws seek to ensure that government contractors pay salary and benefits comparable to the local norms for a given trade.

However, Bartiromo and D'Auria underpaid at least seven workers more than $200,000, while doctoring their books to falsely indicate the employees received the prevailing wage, said Schneiderman.

Court records allege the workers were paid between $15 and $25 an hour without other benefits, while the defendants claimed to have paid them more than $86 per hour in wages and benefits on the CUNY project and between $84 and $88 per hour on the Rutgers Houses job.

The bogus payroll reports were sent to CUNY and the Power Authority, the attorney general said. The cheated employees were working as electricians, Schneiderman said.

Bartiromo and D'Auria were each charged with two counts of second-degree grand larceny, two counts of state labor law violations and 20 counts each of falsifying business records and offering a false instrument for filing. The company faces the same charges and fines of up to $10,000. The grand larceny charges, the top counts, carry a maximum penalty of five to 15 years in prison.

Bartiromo lives on the 200 block of Swinnerton Street, Tottenville; D'Auria resides on 84th Street in the Howard Beach section of Queens.

Messages left Tuesday at R3 Electrical and for the defendants' lawyers were not immediately returned.---Follow @siadvance on Twitter